High cpu load, problem playing MKV in MediaPortal (1 Viewer)

[bob987]

TV-Server Version: 1.0.0.0
MediaPortal Version: 1.0.0.0
MediaPortal Skin: Original
Windows Version: WinXP MCE 2002 sp3
CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP 2800+
HDD: 60G
Memory: 1.5G 400mhz
Motherboard: NF7 V2
Video Card: FX5200 128M
Video Card Driver: 175.19
Sound Card: integrated
1. TV Card: WinTV 150
h.264 Video Codec: CoreAVC + ffdshow
Remote: Microsofts MCE remote

I have a high CPU load when using MediaPortal and this makes my MKV files (720P) getting small glitches and after that the sound is getting out of sync.

I tested the CPU load:
MediaPortal home window: 20%
MediaPortal video window: 70% (doing nothing, just displaying two folders names)
MediaPortal playing MKV file:80-100%
WMP11 playing MKV file: 50-80% (same file)

The MKV being played in MP & WMP11 by:
halli -> CoreAVC -> ffdshow (for subtitles)
+ halli -> AC3filter.

I saw a post on AMD + high CPU load but I found drivers only for the 64bit AMD CPU

Any idea how to solve this high CPU load in MP?

Bob

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

FX5200 128M

720 may struggle, but one thing for sure you will never play 1080, minimum specs for HD content is 6600GT, try a skin that has low overheads, like SimpleMP, most skins only work with 256mb of video memory.

 

[bob987]

Ray,
Thanks for the replay, but the skin is not the cause of this CPU load.

Did a test- played the same 720p file for the same time and measured CPU load with “performance” using different skins:

CPU load[%] min max average
Simple mp 64 96 88
Xface 62 95 85
Blue3 59 95 85

WMP11 54 85 76

As you can see the skin has no affect on the load when the file plays.

I also saw a strange behavior of MP:
When I’m on the “video” screen and MP have the focus the CPU load is ~45%.
When I change to focus to the performance window, the CPU load drops to 15%

Bob

 

[STuNZ]

Ray,
Thanks for the replay, but the skin is not the cause of this CPU load.

Did a test- played the same 720p file for the same time and measured CPU load with “performance” using different skins:

CPU load[%] min max average
Simple mp 64 96 88
Xface 62 95 85
Blue3 59 95 85

WMP11 54 85 76

As you can see the skin has no affect on the load when the file plays.

I also saw a strange behavior of MP:
When I’m on the “video” screen and MP have the focus the CPU load is ~45%.
When I change to focus to the performance window, the CPU load drops to 15%

Bob

Hi Bob,

Do you see the same behaviour when running Media Portal full screen (exclusive) rather than windowed? I ask because I had a similar behaviour whenever I was running MP in a window and went away (cpu dropped from 80% down to 15-30%) when running full screen with exlusive mode switched on..

 

[bob987]

STuNZ,
I see the same high CPU when MP is in full screen.
To test this I ran the performance, started MP normally (full scree), went to the video screen and then exited MP.
Is this what you meant in “exclusive”?

About the video playing, used the ffdshow OSD option, and saw the same high values in full screen mode

Allsow did more tests:

CPU load[%] min max average
GraphEdit___46 _ 84 __ 70
VLC________46 _ 87 __ 78

So for some reason MediaPortal player takes more then extra 10% of my CPU, which are very needed on this machine.

Bob

 

[STuNZ]

Bob,

I've come across an issue relating to CPU load on low memory video cards, (128MB like yours).

You can view the bug here
or the forum discussion here.

Does this sound like what you are getting?

Edit: and there appears to be a fix you can download here

 

[bob987]

STuNZ

Found out that I had “use exclusive mode” turned off. Changed it to on and now It’s seems like in full screen mode the CPU load is a bit lower (not totally sure).


I’ve installed the skin you wrote about, now I have only four *.png files in the cache, but there is no change in the CPU load in the MP menus.

I made an image: started performance, run MP in full screen mode 20 sec in each screen. You can see the high load on a screens that has nothing moving in it.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[bob987]

Did a +5% overclocking to the CPU.
No more glitches and sound out of sync.

 

[Swede]

This should fix it

 

[bob987]

Swede

Thanks, I've installed the file according to the instruction, but there was no noticeable difference.
still high CPU on MP menus.
I'm keeping the overclock.

Bob